A billion thoughts raced into the president’s mind as the voice echoed into the room. Well, they didn’t reach one billion, but it’s safe to say given a few more moments, they’d have reached the figure.

“Oh NO!” were the words that managed to find their way out of his mouth. He realized it then! Something had gone wrong! Horribly wrong, by the look of things.

“Very short time no see, Mr. President”, echoed the voice again, as the red-brown robot walked into the room. Multiple drones covered the windows, and all exit points. More robots emerged and pointed their hands, or rather, weapons at the politicians.

This would have been a great time to panic, but unfortunately, it seemed as if the red-brown robot wasn’t going to allow it.

“Y-you’re the hacker! H-how did y-you survive?” stammered the president, pointing at the red-brown robot.

The robot snickered, rather, tried to snicker. It wasn’t a good sound to the ears. He ignored the failure, and spoke, “I told you not to double cross me, did I not? Now you’re going to pay the consequences.”

“W-what have you done with General Eizard?”

“He’s asleep. He won’t be waking up any time soon. But don’t worry about him, worry more about how you’re going to clean these bodies.”

“What bodies?” asked the president, as a drop of sweat fell from his forehead.

The robot didn’t answer. Instead, it raised its hands and pointed forward. The drones and robots started shooting indiscriminately. Every politician who was sitting inside the auditorium was shot dead in a matter of minutes. It was a terrible sight to behold. A terrible stench of blood filled the air. The president’s mouth was agape, and his nervousness mounted as he watched the horror show being played right in front of him.

Only the president was left alive. He tried to think, but his mind could not allow it. He tried to say something, but words left him too. The robot turned to leave the hall.

“A-aren’t you going to kill me too?” asked the president, as he swallowed hard.

“Why would I do that? I’ve taught you a lesson, which is all I wanted to do.”

The robot exited the building, and was followed by its entourage, the robots and drones. The president swallowed hard, thinking about where it had all gone wrong. Unfortunately for him, the person who could answer that question was not around. He closed his eyes, before standing up to leave the bloodied hall.

Now, while other people were busy getting killed by robots, Ryan had just woken up from a very long nap. The first face he saw was Rose’s. Her wide eyes were peering into his, as if they were looking through to his soul.

“You’re awake!” she exclaimed, as he sat up.

An excruciating pain tore through his head. He hurriedly closed his eyes and clutched his head, as the pain intensified.

“What happened?” he asked, as he realized that he didn’t remember why he was lying down. He surveyed his surroundings and realized that they seemed somewhat familiar. “Wait, are we back at my grandfather’s farm?”

“Yes. We didn’t have another place to go, so Myra teleported us here”, she replied.

“Really? How long was I out?” he asked, looking around the already familiar room. He had realized that it had been his, when he was living with his grandparents at the farm.

“A few hours. It’s already getting dark.”

“Where’s Myra?”

“I’ve no idea”, was the response.

Ryan walked out of the room without saying another word, while Rose followed quietly. They were at the farm alright. There was no mistaking the surroundings; the kitchen he had breakfast in … Weirdly enough, his stomach started growling.

“Hungry?” asked Rose.

“Yeah. Let me look into the fridge, my aunt June must’ve put something into the --” his speech was cut short by the sound of engines roaring in the garage. Without checking the fridge, he ran to the garage.

“Took you long enough!” spoke a voice from the garage, as Ryan arrived.

“Who are you?”

“It doesn’t matter who I am”, replied the stranger. Ryan realized the stranger was wearing a hoodie that obscured his face in the dark garage. He tried turning the switch on. Nothing happened. “That’s not going to work. Anyway, I’m here to give you some warning. If you’re entertaining any thoughts of going after Cerberus, you better squash those thoughts immediately! You don’t have an idea of what you’d be getting yourself into!” said the stranger.

“First of all, what makes you sure I want to get involved?” asked Ryan.

“Your grandparents, and your father”, replied the stranger, shrugging his shoulders in the darkness.

“And how would you know about that?”

“That doesn’t matter! The important thing is to listen to my advice! And tell Blue Rose that she should follow Nightingale’s advice and stay out of it as well!”

“Well, thank you for the concern. However, I have already been dragged into it. The only thing I can do is respond in kind.”

The stranger sighed, and then spoke, “Okay then. Have it your way. I tried to warn you, but if you want to get yourself killed, then go ahead. You’ve no idea what you’re getting yourself into!”

“And why would you care?” asked Ryan, puzzled.

“Well, you’ll find out soon enough. Whatever you do, don’t trust Doctor Paige!” said the stranger.

Smoke filled the garage, and as Ryan coughed his way out, Rose came up to meet him outside the garage.

“What happened?” she asked, noticing the smoke.

Ryan didn’t answer. Instead, he rushed back into garage. Ryan squinted through the darkness, looking for the stranger. Rose followed and switched the light on. Besides a red classic sports car and a pick up truck, there was nothing else in the garage.

“Why is this here?” she asked, walking over to the sports car.

“I don’t know. There was a guy here! I wonder where he went. He said that I should stay away from Cerberus and that I should tell you to follow Nightingale’s advice. Who’s Nightingale?”

“Well … umm … I think you should listen to him and stay out of this.”

“Why are you avoiding the question?”

“To protect you! Something else is going on”, she responded.

“Something like what?”

Rose shrugged her shoulders and remained silent. Ryan was not amused. He sighed, “Look, I know you’re simply trying to help. You’re trying to keep me safe, I get it. Just so you should know, I appreciate it. I appreciate that you’re trying to protect me, that you actually care about me.” He proceeded to place his hands on her shoulders.

Standing face to face, he realized, she wasn’t that much tall. In fact, she was almost the same height as he was. “Thank you, Rose. Thank you for caring”, he spoke with a certain tone in his voice, that would’ve made a normal girl burst into tears.

“Nice try! You should know by now that any and all psychological tactics you employ are not going to work. Speaking of which, who taught you how to do that?” she responded.

Ryan giggled before responding, “Wouldn’t you want to know?”

“Oh well, give it up”, she answered, turning to leave the garage.

“This yours?” asked Ryan, pointing at the red classic sports car parked next to his grandfather’s truck.

“It was my grandfather’s. But now I’m not sure if I can return it. Besides, I’m going to be keeping an eye on you.”

“Come on… How can I make it up to you? How’s this, I take you out on a date and then you tell me about Nightingale and the stranger? Sounds fair?”

“Haha, in your dreams!” she kept walking.

“It should be quite some fun. Wouldn’t you love to talk?”

“Nope. Not even slightly interested!”

“What if I buy you a gift?”

“Then you’d be wasting your time!”

“Really? Imagine if I were to buy you something like … a couple of Harrison daggers…”

As soon as she heard those words, she froze mid-step. “How do you know about those?”

Ryan giggled again. “Can we start talking now?”

“You’ve got my attention”, she said, turning to face him.

“So about my date? I’ll be sure to get you a couple of daffodils”, he said with a ridiculous smile plastered on his face.

Rose’s face turned quite serious. There were all sorts of colours mixed in, and she focused. “How do you know about those?”

“When should we have the date? How about tomorrow afternoon?”

She walked towards him with a serious expression, and then she pointed two fingers at his neck. “Do you know that I can kill you in the blink of an eye?”

“I’d like to see you try”, he responded casually.

Rose sighed, “What do you want?”

“It’s simple. I want a date”, came the response, accompanied by a ridiculous smile.

“I wonder who taught you to ask girls out.”

“Well, different girls require different tactics. Besides, weren’t you threatening to kill me some time ago?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Anyway, so we’re having a date tomorrow afternoon, right? Let’s say three o’clock?”

Rose rolled her eyes and forced herself to reply, “Look, don’t mistake this for anything other than me having pity on you!”

“Yes, a pity you wouldn’t have if I didn’t know a few extra things about you. Anyway, are you staying over?”

“What? You want a young lady to walk around at this time of the night?”

“Well, I would pity whoever tried to rob you.”

“Y-you!”

“So I take it you’re staying over? Good. You can have the guest room, it’s not occupied.”

Rose rolled her eyes at him again and then replied, “Very charming. No wonder you didn’t have many friends in school!”

“!” Ryan almost exploded, but then he remembered something. “Okay Rose. Nice try. By the way, Cyberpunk05 says hello.”

Rose immediately froze on the spot.